....LA

Glendale Travel Blog

So this week hasn't been that bad. Nothing as crazy as the Vegas instalment, but definately some quality activities...

I enjoyed a couple of epic runs up through Griffith Park. It's a park in the middle of LA, that is seriously under-rated. On Monday I ran up the mountain & After a serious amount of huff & puff, was able to enjoy some pretty spectacular views of LA all the way to the ocean. Upon summiting this little hill, I was faced with the decision of whether to head back down toward the car, or go via to observatory & back down.... Well in my classic "up for the challenge" attitude, I decided the observatory wasn't too far away & gave it a go.... turns out I "bit of a more than I could chew" with some pretty brutal steep sections resulting in my "run" turning into a "walk" momentarily.

More Griffith Park - complete with Hollywood sign in background

.. but it was worth it, I got to check out the observatory (smart people drive to it) & the hollywood sign. end result: 11km run including 1500ft climb. Ouch.

It seems I didn't learn from my experiences on tuesday, and chose to do it all again. This time only 9km, same painful 1500ft climb. Was definately worth it.

Wednesday I was treated to a little excursion to the fancy lights of Universal city by my cousin Tammie. Pretty cool little area of town... lots of people very willing to take your money in exchange for some souvenirs & trinkets which are of no value to me & my backpack. Enjoyed some quality time with Tam over a massive hamburger at... you guessed it.... Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood (had to be done didn't it).

We rose early friday morning to go pick up Sam/Broomy/Broomfield/Paddle Pop Lion (I include this as I may refer to him as any of the aforementioned names in future logs).

Trip planning!

He arrived ok, after having some mixup with Qantas & onward travel plans. Long story short: The good people at Qantas fabricated all the right documentation so he could get into the states.

...After picking up some supplies & an arvo nap, Broomy and I enjoyed a double date with my grandmother and one of her close friends (Beth) at a Mejican restaurant up the road. Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed ourseleves & had a couple of Margaritas and ate way too much fajitas... but it's excusable. It's america right?

Today I did my best to break Broomy on a run around Grifith Park before we headed up to Santa Barbara again to visit Trina (mum's old college girlfriend) & Jose. Had a great lunch & tried to explain to some of her friends that the reason we don't have seals at home is simply because the water is too warm - not because sharks eat them. Anyway, it was another great day & Trina enlightened us with some more quality travel advice on california and Mejico.... starting to get excited now!!!

Tomorrow, we're off to a theme park.... "Magic Mountain".....

oh, and the lakers are into the finals..... but I still have a problem staying awake when watching them!